Ch. vii. anions: modern Pastoral Nations. 123 



"6 



whatever it may be, is probably distributed over 

 its surface nearly in proportion to the degree of 

 actual fertility in the different districts. 



Volney justly describes this necessary distri- 

 bution in speaking of the Bedoweens of Syria. 

 " In the barren cantons, that is, those which are 

 " ill furnished with plants, the tribes are feeble 

 " and very distant from each other, as in the de- 

 " sert of Suez, that of the Red Sea, and the in- 

 " terior part of the Great Desert. When the soil 

 " is better covered, as between Damascus and 

 " the Euphrates, the tribes are stronger and less 

 " distant. And in the cultivable cantons, as the 

 " Pachalic of Aleppo, the Hauran, and the coun- 

 " try of Gaza, the encampments are numerous 

 " and near each other."* Such a distribution of 

 inhabitants, according to the quantity of food 

 which they can obtain in the actual state of their 

 industry and habits, may be applied to Grand 

 Tartary, as well as to Syria and Arabia, and is, 

 in fact, equally applicable to the whole earth, 

 though the commerce of civilized nations prevents 

 it from being so obvious as in the more simple 

 stages of society. 



The Mahometan Tartars, who inhabit the western 

 parts of Grand Tartary, cultivate some of their 

 lands, but in so slovenly and insufficient a manner 

 as not to afford a principal source of subsistence.! 

 The slothful and warlike genius of the barbarian 

 every where prevails, and he does not easily re- 



* Voy. de Volney, torn. i. ch. xxii. p. 351. 8vo. 1787. 

 t GetieaL Hist. Tart. vol. ii. p. 382. 



